Heading into the 2023 Formula 1 season, the entire motorsport community was laughing at McLaren, as the once-legendary outfit found itself loitering at the bottom of the pack. Indeed, McLaren were one of the fewest teams to score nil points out of the first couple of race weekends. The highest finish came from Oscar Piastri, who managed to secure P15 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix while it was P17 for Lando Norris.
Indeed, there were brief moments of joy for the title-winning outfit, but, it was often overshadowed by their persistent lack of pace. However, then arrived the unexpected rise to the top! From dwindling at the bottom of the grid, McLaren found themselves battling for podiums at the British Grand Prix. Norris secured a promising P2 while his teammate narrowly missed out on P3.
Now, a summer break and a handful of race weekends later, McLaren celebrated an incredible double-podium at the Japanese Grand Prix. Such has been the growth of the Woking outfit. What’s more, the rather unusual spurt in performance also triggered heightened theories, reckoning the team could finally challenge for the world championship titles against Red Bull Racing.
However, setting aside the predictions, what does the future really hold for Norris and Piastri? Are the two drivers on course to challenge the indestructible Max Verstappen? Not according to McLaren’s team principal, Andreas Stella.
Lando Norris & Co. nowhere close to challenging Red Bull
According to Motorsport, Andreas Stella acknowledged making massive strides forward in the development of McLaren. However, unfortunately, the big leaps are still not enough to help his two young drivers take on the leading world champions.
🗣️ | McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes RB19 is still ahead of the grid
“Still a step too far. But in fairness, at the moment, it looks [as if] Max is one step too far.”
“There’s a variability of tracks left in the season, but none of these tracks has the Singapore… pic.twitter.com/2gmORjNJ29
— RBR News 🇳🇱🇲🇽 (@redbulletin) September 26, 2023
“Still a step too far. But in fairness, at the moment, it looks [as if] Max is one step too far,” he said. “There’s a variability of tracks left in the season, but none of these tracks has the Singapore characteristics. While there could be some tracks in which we could be competitive – I think Qatar should be a decent track for us – I’m afraid that the characteristics we like, they are also the characteristics where Red Bull will be just outstanding.
Overall, McLaren still has quite a lot to win from the 2023 season. While Red Bull is unreachable, Norris and Piastri could well supersede Aston Martin and possibly one of Ferrari and Mercedes, and secure the top 3 in the constructors’ standings. Hence, with a busy few weekends ahead, can McLaren orchestrate one of the greatest comebacks in the history of F1?